NEDERLAND — Catcher Madelyn Daniel talked to her pitcher during a timeout, their Nederland Lady Bulldogs one strike plus one out away from beating the Port Neches-Groves Lady Indians.
“She told me not to panic and just do my thing like she always knows I can do,” Madyson Guidry said.
The next pitch, Guidry struck out the batter for the second out. The next at-bat, Hannah Smith welcomed the fly ball to center field in her glove, and Nederland escaped with a 2-1 victory on Friday.
What relief — and exhilaration — the Lady Bulldogs must have felt.
“Both,” Guidry said. “Trust me, I was panicking all day, ready for this game, and excited for the next team we play.”
It was just on March 14 when PN-G pulled out a 6-5 win in 11 innings in Port Neches, handing Nederland its first district loss.
Now, PN-G, Nederland and Goose Creek Memorial are joined atop the district standings with 9-2 records. GCM beat Vidor 11-3 on Friday.
“For whatever reason, I felt like we came out complacent, not that we came out and laid down or anything because they’ve [Nederland] got a ton of sticks,” PN-G coach Jessica Lemoine said. “They swing big bats, and they do good things. I think we didn’t trust ourselves enough to step up when we needed to.”
Guidry did the job for Nederland (20-9). The senior struck out seven and held the Lady Indians (18-7) to three hits in a complete-game gem.
“We put a gameplan in, and they trusted it,” Nederland coach Will Mallette said. “It’s all [due] to those girls who believe. They trusted each other. Madyson’s a great pitcher with a great defense. Timely hitting. We had a couple of freshmen hit big for us. Invaluable, right there.”
PN-G sophomore Britni Hunt was brilliant, too. She rang up eight Lady Bulldogs — three of them in order in the second — and spread out six hits in seven innings while walking two.
“That kid over there can pitch,” Mallette said. “She’s just a sophomore, now? Britni’s a great pitcher and kept us off-balance on the night.”
The Lady Dogs got all the offense they needed in the third. Lexi Eversole and Destini Trahan led off with back-to-back singles and scored on Bailey Beard’s sacrifice grounder and Lindsey Taylor’s single, respectively.
Nederland left six on base, however, three of them in scoring position. PN-G left five on the pads — four in position to score, three in the last two innings and one in the seventh.
Callie Jourdan reached on an error to lead off the PN-G seventh and Bailey Crorey followed by reaching on a dropped strikeout. Bayja Newby pushed a run across on a sacrifice grounder to second base, and then Guidry retired the next two batters to seal the deal.
Kaitlyn Boudreaux, Rachel Hammersmith and Jourdan each singled for the Lady Indians. Taylor was the only multiple hitter for Nederland (2 for 3), Beard had a first-inning double, and Smith also singled.
Now the 22-5A race gets even more interesting as GCM visits Nederland next Friday. Nederland first visits Baytown Lee on Tuesday. PN-G hosts Ozen and visits Central in the coming week.